Hemispheric asymmetry for face recognition: cognitive style and the "crossover" effect

Photographs of faces were serially presented for central viewing, while Ss made either "social" or "physical" judgments about each face. Subsequent tachistoscopic recognition of laterally displaced targets displayed a pattern of contrasting visual field superiorities for faces seen under the two conditions. This "crossover" pattern occurred in opposite directions for reaction time and for accuracy. Field dependent and field independent Ss displayed the crossover equally, but crossovers by field independent Ss showed a consistent direction within each dependent measure, whereas those by field dependent Ss were equally divided between the two directions. Choices of encoding strategy by field independent Ss appear to be more strongly task-determined than those by field dependent Ss, but the relation between the encoding manipulation, presumed encoding strategy differences, and specific visual field advantage remains unknown.